Higher Aim with Dr. Curt Dodd

The very heartbeat of the Church needs to be grace. Under grace, we extend love regardless of who people are, regardless of where they are on their journey, and regardless of what is happening in their life right now. We just extend God's love and understand that God loves us so much that He is not going to leave us where we are. We are all on a journey. Hopefully, you are farther ahead on your journey with Jesus now than you were last year, or two years ago, or five or 10 years ago. But wherever you find yourself on your journey in following Christ, grace is something we can all continue to grow in. So in this week’s message, I want us to take a look at the reasons why we should offer grace to those around us.

Has there ever been a moment in your life when you actually felt like something was missing? You needed to fill in the blank on your page, and you didn't know what it was, but you knew Christ. You remember when you turned from sin, placed your faith in Christ, and you followed Him with baptism. You got connected to a local church and you made prayer a priority. You made Bible study something that was very important, but there was something missing; and you didn't know what it was. In today’s message, we are going to fill in that blank as we look to Scripture to see the example Jesus set for us in service, because for many of us, serving is the one muscle of our faith that we’re not exercising, and that’s why we feel like something is missing.

Over and over in Scripture, you find that God keeps His Word, and everything that we know about God is revealed to us in His Word. If you want to grow deep, get into the Word of God. Learn the promises of God. Claim the promises of God. Stand on the promises of God. When you do, you will find that God always fulfills His Word. In this week’s message, we’re going to look at several of God’s promises in Scripture, and then we are going to look at what it means if God doesn’t fulfill His Word.

Many of us have not come from religious or church experiences where praise was a key element. By reading today’s key passage, it is important for us to understand that Jesus accepted the praise and encouraged the praise of the people who needed hope in a very hopeless situation. They were living under the oppression of Rome and saw in Christ there was a chance for a new beginning. God is trying to teach us that same thing. When you learn to become a person of praise, it will change your life, and that's what many of us need. We need a change in our lives. If we will become men, women, and young people of praise, God will do something amazing in our lives. Learning how important praise is and beginning to practice that in our lives is essential to maturity in the Christian life. Praise can do several things for you, and those things are what we are going to take a closer look at in today’s message.

Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus, and he was the brother of Mary and Martha. Lazarus had been dead for four days before Jesus stepped into that arena. When Jesus called his name, he came out of the grave. This event shook the whole area, and word quickly spread that this had happened in the area. Because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, people came running to meet the man, to see both the man who performed the miracle and the one who was the recipient of the miracle. It was a life-changing moment. Following this moment, during a dinner held in Jesus’ honor, Mary gave a sacrificial gift out of appreciation for what Jesus had done for her and her brother. In doing so, she set a wonderful example for all of us to follow when it comes to giving. So in this week’s message, we are going to look at several truths about giving and how it impacts our relationship with God.

I know that many of us have a difficult time understanding where God is going with our life. What we are going through doesn't make sense because we don't have the long-term view to see the end of the road. We don’t understand the final purpose of why God is allowing us to navigate through this event, that experience, that heartbreak, that blessing, or that other event. We just don't know. We have a difficult time because we are so focused on where we are right now. But you never know how the Lord could want to use the difficult time in your life for your good and for His glory.

In this week’s message, Dr. Dodd continues the conversation he began last week on what America needs today. Specifically, he’s going to dive into the first and second chapters of Acts and walk through the first awakening that came at Pentecost. There is so much we can learn from this time in history and apply to what we’re walking through in our world today. So we’ll dive into some of those lessons in this message, including the value of obedience, patience, prayer, and community.

We will go on a journey in this week's message to answer the question, “What Does America Need Today?” These are strange, unprecedented times that we are experiencing in our nation and globally. Many of us are asking, “God, What are you doing? What does our country need to do?” As we study the Word of God, we will answer the question, “What America Does Need Today?”

As a child, do you remember your parents telling you to do something, and you didn’t do it? For whatever reason, probably the disobedient heart of a child, you didn't do what they told you. They would come back and say to you, “I'm going to give you to three. If you don't do it by three, you're going to get it.” Then they counted off “one, two, three.” If you had not done it by three, you would hear these words, “Wait till your father gets home,” or the wrath of your parent came down. You were either grounded for life, or you had some kind of disciplinary action because of your disobedience. All of us remember those moments in time. Well, we are in a similar time when it comes to the state of our nation and our world. Our society has been stuck in patterns of disobedience to God for some time now, and we need a new revolution.

Everyone has had a different experience when it comes to their earthly father. Some people have a great relationship with their dad. Others have a strained or difficult relationship. And some people never had a relationship with their dad at all. In each case, your experience with your earthly father can often times affect how you view your Heavenly Father. But let’s not forget that God is unlike any of our earthly fathers. He is perfect. He loves you unconditionally. He will always keep His word, and He will always be there for you.